https://en.hromadske.ua/posts/opera...s-in-donbas-connected-with-italian-leadership
On the night of August 1, Italian police arrested three people and declared another three wanted. They are accused of recruiting and financing mercenaries for pro-Russian forces in the Donbas.
The investigation, which has been ongoing since 2013, has been called "Operation 88" – a reference to the the fascist greeting "Heil Hitler!". This was the greeting suspects exchanged in telephone conversations. Most detainees are involved in the ultra right Italian forces. In particular, they are associated with the League party – previously known as Lega Nord – which currently hold seats in the Italian government.
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The mercenaries themselves made little effort in hiding their participation in the conflict. One of the wanted, Andrea Palmeri, nicknamed “Generalisimus”, freely gave interviews and published photos from occupied Luhansk on Facebook.
His last post was dated August 1. Palmeri posted a photo in which he was distributing goods to residents of the occupied territories, with the caption "yes, I am a terrorist, I admit it.” In Italy, he was convicted for murder. He is now hiding from the police.
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Palmeri openly calls himself a fascist and sports a swastika tattoo on his shoulder. The prosecutors suspect that he is the main liaison between the Italian mercenaries and the Putin commanders in the Donbas. However, it’s not only the ultra-right who fight for the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR.) One of the suspects has extreme left views. Mercenaries tend to be united by the Eurasian ideology of Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin and the idea of a "great Russia," which opposes the "fallen" West.
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and, much more....
